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DIY: Halloween Ghost Piñata

October 20, 2017

One of the scariest things at any party is realizing that it’s turned into a snore fest. Don’t let that be your Halloween bash this year, and inject some fun into it with your very own handmade ghost piñata 👻. You can fill it with candy (classic), or perhaps with spookier innards like fake spiders, worms and eyeballs. Whatever you end up choosing, bashing this piñata open is sure to liven things up!

What you’ll need:

Lots of cardboard – have some softer/thinner pieces on hand for easier shaping on the sides

Step 1:

First print our piñata template and cut out two emoji ghost shapes out of the cardboard. The template is intended to make a piñata that is 10 inches tall and 11 inches wide (25 cm by 28 cm), but can be scaled down to suit your party. Then cut out strips of cardboard 2.5″ wide for the sides. Try to get cut side strips as long as 12″ (30 cm), but don’t worry if they’re shorter. You can always use the glue gun to join them together later.

Step 2:

Heat up the glue gun and start gluing the side strips to one of the ghost templates. Depending on the cardboard you’re using, it might be quite difficult to bend it around the tight curves found on the ghost’s arms or its bottom. For those curves, cut and glue smaller individual pieces and patch up the seams with more glue.

Step 3:

Fill the cavity with Halloween candies and glue the second cardboard ghost cutout on top with the glue gun. Make sure to fill in all the seams with glue, otherwise this ghost might lose its bowels before your party!

Step 4:

Set the ghost aside and cut out its facial features from our piñata template. Next layer a few sheets of the white tissue paper and cut fringes into them with a pair of scissors. For our ghost, we only used up about 3 sheets of the 20″ x 26″ (50 cm x 66 cm) paper, so a little goes a long way.

Step 5:

Spray your cardboard ghost white and then start gluing on the tissue paper once it’s dry. The reason you need to spray paint it white is because the tissue paper is fairly translucent, so the cardboard colour will peek through. When gluing on the fringe, start from the bottom and work your way up. Leave about 1 & 1/4″ (3 cm) of each layer of fringe peeking through below the next layer and only glue half of the strip down. We want some fringe the ruffle after everything is done!

Step 6:

Continue gluing on the fringe until the whole piñata is covered. Make sure to add the tissue paper to the ghost’s sides as well – again, starting from the bottom until you reach the top of its head. In the case of its curvy sheet bottom, just work from one side to the other. Finally, glue on the eyes and tongue (we curved ours for a little extra volume) and add a string on top for hanging.

Tada!

Now you’re ready for a spooktacularly good time. 👻

Make sure to tag us on Instagram @caffedemetre if you make your own emoji ghost piñata, and check back next Tuesday for another Halloween tutorial to jazz up your monster mash!